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from the hack-and-search-sounds-like-a-boring-dungeon-crawl dept.
The U.S. Department of Justice wants new authority to hack and search remote computers during investigations, saying the new rules (Giant pdf) are needed because of complex criminal schemes sometimes using millions of machines spread across the country. Digital rights groups say the request from the DOJ for authority to search computers outside the district where an investigation is based raises concerns about Internet security and Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. "By expanding federal law enforcement's power to secretly exploit 'zero-day' vulnerabilities in software and Internet platforms, the proposal threatens to weaken Internet security for all of us," Nathan Freed Wessler, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said by email.
(Score: 2) by physicsmajor on Tuesday May 13 2014, @10:42PM
I really take exception to your comment implicitly grouping BDSM with pedophilia. The first is a blanket of completely legal things consenting adults may engage in. The second is against ethical, moral, and legal codes in every part of the civilized world.
I'm not a member of the BDSM community, but I know people who are. You would never know in their day to day lives, and it's entirely consensual. So I feel the need to point out, firmly, that these are completely and absolutely different things, which should never be grouped together implicitly or explicitly.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Wednesday May 14 2014, @12:18AM
Speaking as a victim of a pedophile who liked small boys I'm sorry that you're prickly. Speaking as someone who has gone through years of psychotherapy to deal with the wreckage it created in my life and learned a lot of about the psychology of sexuality, it was appropriate to group them together because they are both particularly controversial manifestations of abnormal sexuality. That fact that one is illegal and devastating to the victim is irrelevant. So, you can take exception if you like; that is your right. But I think you're overreacting.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by physicsmajor on Wednesday May 14 2014, @03:30AM
First off: I am in no way defending pedophilia. It is morally, ethically, and legally repugnant in every way possible. I wish nobody ever had to experience what you did.
With that said, and even though I'm hardly the one to be having this conversation, I really have to press the point. The salient difference between these two is consent. Rape is, at its most basic definition, a sexual act which does not involve mutual consent. I'm going to assert this and move on; if you don't like that definition feel free to question it, but I think most would agree thus far.
Sexual acts involving a minor are by definition non-consensual. They are, thus, categorically and without exception wrongful acts of rape.
In contrast, games of bondage are, in most cases consensual (there are always exceptions, and those I do not defend). A subset of people have their sexual experience greatly amplified by giving up control. Crucially, this does not mean giving up consent! Rules are defined beforehand. Whoever plays the submissive role must be confident and trust their partner, and they have a safe word to end the experience if needed. The game is one of an illusion of loss of control. Critically, all of this happens between two consenting adults.
These could not be more different, and grouping them is absolutely incorrect. Again, I'm sorry for what you've experienced, but there are crucial differences which cannot be waived away between them. Come back with citations for statements like "particularly controversial manifestations of abnormal sexuality" if you want, but I think I've made my case and I'll let the mods decide.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Wednesday May 14 2014, @01:26PM
there's nothing controversial or abnormal about two [or more] consenting adults. nobody has any business telling other consenting adults what they can and cant do in their bedrooms.